


CD-RW

by Owlix



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, non-consensual injecting, non-consensual memory erasure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 15:36:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1475077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlix/pseuds/Owlix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chromedome tried to tell Rewind the whole truth, once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	CD-RW

“He’s still alive?” Rewind’s vocalizer crackled with relief, voice breaking.

But then he seemed to realize that Chromedome wasn’t smiling, and seemed to recognize the pained tone in his voice. Rewind moved forward in a rush, pulling Chromedome’s big body against his own in a one-sided attempt at an embrace.

“I’m not going to leave you for him,” Rewind said, vocalizer muffled, his face pressed up against Chromedome’s abdomen. “When I said my vows, I meant them.”

“I know,” Chromedome said. And he knew that it was true. Rewind may leave him, but there was no way he would leave him for what remained of Dominus Ambus.

“So where is he? We have to-- I have to see him.” Rewind’s camera light blinked as he ran it through an eager self-diagnostic, and Chromedome heard the lens adjust, anxiously preparing itself to record. “We need to find him. Rodimus will let us go. Maybe he’ll even take us there. It’s not like this quest of his is making any progress anyway, and--”

“Rewind.”

Chromedome spoke quietly, but something in his voice caused Rewind to fall abruptly silent. Rewind’s embrace loosened. Chromedome could feel the little bot staring up at him, but he couldn’t meet his optics.

“Rewind, there’s more. I wish… I wish there wasn’t, but there’s more. Dominus Ambus is alive, but--”

The words wouldn’t come. Chromedome cleared his vocalizer in a mess of static and restarted it.

“He’s alive,” Chromedome said, clearer this time, “but he isn’t who he used to be.”

When Rewind finally spoke, his voice was calm and cold.

“What did you do to him?” His little hands were fists. “What did you _do_?”

“He’d figured out what we were doing, Rewind. He’d found the labs - all on his own, somehow - and he was going to go public with the information. Do you understand what that would’ve done to us? How many defectors that would have made? It could’ve cost us the _war_ , Rewind. If I hadn’t done what I did to him, we would all be wearing purple badges right now. Or we’d be dead.”

But Rewind just repeated - still cold and calm and even - “Chromedome. _What did you do?_ ”

Chromedome felt himself go still inside. “I wanted to keep him mostly as he was. To just erase his memories of the institute and let him free again. He was a good person, Rewind -- misguided, but he meant well. I can see why you…

“But Prowl was sure that he’d made backups of the information. He hadn’t, by the way - he hadn’t wanted to get you involved in something this dangerous. But that didn’t matter. Prowl was sure that if we just wiped the data, Ambus would find us again anyway. He was too smart to leave intact. And he was too much of an idealist. I couldn’t make him understand that the ends justified our means -- not without changing who he was entirely.”

Rewind was staring at him, horrified. But now that he’d started to tell the truth, Chromedome couldn’t stop. Not until he’d finished.

“I erased him," he said, his voice oddly cold. "I made him a new mech. Nothing like who he'd been before. It was that or kill him, and we -- that wasn't how we operated. We needed Autobots, not corpses. So I did what I was told to do.

“I didn’t have anything to do with his empurata,” he said, and he could feel Rewind’s pained wince as Rewind took a horrified step away from him. “I don’t even think Prowl did. That was out of spite. Some of my lab mates couldn’t tolerate the idea of being outsmarted by some old holier-than-thou pre-war mech. There wasn’t a lot of oversight in those days. They did it on my off-shift. I--”

He would’ve let them even if he’d been there. He had turned a blind eye to worse atrocities than that. He’d participated in worse.

Rewind stared at him for a long time, not speaking. Chromedome stepped towards him. Rewind took a stumbling, shaky step back.

“Please,” Chromedome said. “Rewind, say something.”

Rewind’s optics dimmed. He took another step back and shook his head. “I have to go. Tell me where he is. What his designation is now. What he--” Static. “What he _looks like_.”

“Let me come with you. I can help.”

“No.” Rewind shook his head again, madly. “No. This is-- You-- You _lied to me._ All those years, you let me search. You _comforted_ me. And you never-- No. I’m sorry, Domey. I don’t think-- I don’t think I can forgive this.”

They met each others’ optics. Chromedome could see the pain there - pain that he had caused. Pain that he was responsible for.

Pain that he could undo.

Chromedome lowered his head. “I understand,” he said. He held his arms out and knelt low. Rewind hesitated before stepping towards him. He shook with rough, angry sobs in Chromedome’s embrace. Chromedome stroked his back soothingly and whispered soft, endless apologies into his audio receptor.

He had to do this. He needed Rewind - needed Rewind to keep him honest, to keep him on the right path. Before Rewind, he had done so many horrible things. Without Rewind, he knew that he would start doing them again. He wasn’t strong enough on his own.

And Rewind needed him, too. When Chromedome had found him, Rewind’s life had been spiraling out of control.

Whatever Rewind thought right now, they needed each other. They were stronger together than either of them could possibly be alone.

Chromedome would try again. He would tell Rewind again. He would figure out a way to tell him that would make Rewind stay instead of leave.

Chromedome’s hand drifted further up.

Rewind realized what Chromedome was going to do just before he slipped the needles in. He fought with all the strength his little body had, throwing himself against Chromedome’s arm hard enough to dent and whimpering with strangled horrified fear. Then it was done, and he went still.

Chromedome erased the entire conversation, eliminating the pain he had caused. He had time enough to be careful and thorough. He left no telltale damage behind in Rewind’s neural network.

Rewind woke up in his arms, optics dim with the after-effects of neural alteration.

Chromedome held him, and said softly, "You had a bad dream."

  
When Chromedome asked Brainstorm to discreetly alter Rewind’s medical records with a fictional allergy to UV light so no one would notice the scars… Well, Brainstorm hesitated, and Chromedome could see the judgement in his optics. But their whole friendship had been built around covering up for each other. It didn't feel good to have Brainstorm of all people judging him. But maybe Chromedome deserved it, and in the end, Brainstorm did was he was asked.

**Author's Note:**

> Once the possibility of this occurred to me, it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down.


End file.
